Diamond: We've done our sums to make sure Barton move works

Sale boss Steve Diamond says the Sharks will have it all figured out in terms of breaking even when when they move to their new Barton home next season. Sale brought the curtain down on their nine-year stay at Edgeley Park 10 days ago by attracting more than 10,000 punters to their Stockport finale at home to Harlequins.

Sale boss Steve Diamond says the Sharks will have it all figured out in terms of breaking even when when they move to their new Barton home next season.

Sale brought the curtain down on their nine-year stay at Edgeley Park 10 days ago by attracting more than 10,000 punters to their Stockport finale at home to Harlequins.

The Sharks are now preparing for their move to the Salford City Stadium where they will groundshare with Salford City Reds.

And with the club posting record season ticket sales for the new campaign, Diamond is confident Sale will attract the attendances necessary for the club to break even next year once they move to Barton.

"We need crowds of 7,500 to break even next season," revealed the Sharks chief executive Diamond.

"Season ticket sales are breaking records and we anticipate that will carry on in the next few weeks. We’ve got the entire business fraterinty in Manchester fully behind the club.

"We have got new business sponsors coming on board daily which is brilliant and what we have given them and what we can give them is something that football can’t, which is interaction with players in a friendly family atmosphere.

"The priority we had was to make the business break even which we are nearly at.

"We wanted to move to a new stadium, which we have also achieved, and get a management team in place with a proven track record off the field and see where we go.The goals where to be in to the top six and to have the leading try scorer and we achieved both of them.

"Six or seven years ago, when I was coaching here along with Jim Mallinder, we had that for three years in a row and we achieved that this season with Robbie Miller so overall we are proud of what we have achieved."

As he reflected on a memorable season, Diamond also took a side-swipe at England’s selectors who last week overlooked a phalanx of Sale’s promsing young English stars for their summer tour to South Africa.

After finishing as the top Premiership try scorer, Miller’s omission in particular came as a surprise.

"Rob Miller, Tom Brady and Will Addison are all stars of the future," Diamond added. "None of them got a look in with England but that’s their loss."

Meanwhile, Sale are closing in on appointing a new director of rugby to replace former head coach Tony Hanks with former Sharks star Bryan Redpath set to be unveiled in the next few weeks.

Diamond has held extensive interviews over the past few weeks with several candidates but Redpath has emerged as Sale’s number one choice.

Redpath, who resigned as Gloucester head coach last month, was also interviewed for the vacant position at Munster but lost out to Rod Penney.

All along, Diamond has stressed that the new man will be in place before Sale’s players return for pre-season training on June 6 and an appointment could be made within the next fortnight.

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